Chicken Fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPBfMGLf9Q

Welcome Chicks!

This week has been an exciting one! We welcomed 8 new members to our room 4 community. These 8, happen to be slightly smaller and fuzzier than the rest of the students. 8 Chicks arrived. & arrived 1-2 days early and the last one arrived on schedule, day 21. We brainstormed names throughout the week and have named them all.In no particular order we have: Uno, Bruno, Pippie, LuLu, Pancake, Henrietta, Snickerdoodle and Squishy. They are pretty awesome! We have learned about the brooder box and the needs of a chick. Students will learn more about the life cycle of a chicken and their anatomy,etc. Other things we had going on this week were a book swap on Wednesday morning, mindfulness with Tara Luce (it was great), and Ms. Leah has been taking students out in small groups two times per week to water our flowers in the community garden. On Friday students earned their prize for willing their pom-pom jar for positive behavior and they chose a movie day, so we had popcorn and watched, "Chicken Run." Will has been coming to help us out in the afternoon and next week will be his last week; students will really miss him and so will teachers. He has been a big help and very kind to students. We will celebrate him on June 1st with a gift and party.

Here is an overview of some of the learning going on as we approach our last month of school:

Reading:

Students continue to practice their syllable rules and learn the /aw/ and /all/ patterns. Students are working hard on contractions and I am hoping to work on handwriting with all students so I send them to 2nd grade with both well-polished handwriting and strong grammar skills. We continue with daily guided reading groups and building fluency and comprehension skills. I have been finishing up BAS assessments with some help from Beth Wotjsuik. Students have made so much progress. Please keep reading with your child each day this summer; even 10 minutes each day will make a huge impact!

Writing:

Students are finishing up their research paragraphs on embryology and chickens. Students worked in pairs based on common research question interest. Students learned about different text features like table of contents, index, glossary, labels, photos, captions, diagrams, etc. and used these features to gather facts and details to answer their question. Students also used computers to do some of their research, using kid-friendly search engines. One great one is kiddle.co! Students are working on writing an introduction, giving facts with supporting details and adding a conclusion to their paragraph. Then students will add scientific drawings to support their writing.

Math:

Students have been working on coins this week. Students have been identifying coins, adding and subtracting, building different amounts using coins, when giving a certain number of cents. Students have been challenged by making the same number with coins in two different ways. Students have also practiced making change and we have set up a class store. We will finish coins next week and start measurement as our last unit before the end of the year. With the help of Mary Lambert, our math coach, 1st grade teachers have been working on the end of the year assessments for math, which is using an AVMR assessment. Students were given this in the fall and by reassessing them at the end of the year we can see where they fall in five different categories: number ID, forward counting, backward counting, structuring, and addition and subtraction. 

Reminders:

• We would love snack donations to get us through the end of the year.
• Monday, June 5th is our field trip to Look Park. Please send your child with clothes that can get wet, a towel, and/or change of clothes. Sunscreen and a water bottle is a great idea.
• Monday 5/29 is a holiday-enjoy your 3-day weekend!

Egg Drop

Room 4 students were flexible with their schedule, as we flipped Tuesday and Wednesday's specials time from afternoon to morning. This resulted in an extra recess at the end of the day, which I am sure the students didn't mind! On Monday students planted our flowers in the Crocker Farm Community garden with the help of Farmer Leila and a volunteer, Maryann. Students also did a great drop with the egg drop, spending Wednesday designing and sketching their package or egg drop "device" and then on Thursday students got to see how well their design work and if their egg would survive the drop. Be sure to ask your child about it and how their design worked. Which designs were the most successful? Why do they think they worked the best? Mr. Shea also popped in to share about his family and what is important in life. The kids loved seeing the photo of him at 3 months old and 5 generations of family. Next week Tara Luce will start mindfulness with our class two times per week. I am looking forward to this!

Reading

Students continue to work on contractions and long and short vowel rules (AND exceptions to the rule or trickers). We have been reading decoable texts and working on main idea and retelling. I have been pulling students to do their end of the year BAS assessment to check on their current reading level and students are really doing a wonderful job! The amount of growth is amazing! Thanks for your support at home with the reading. Keep it up!

Writing

We have started with our Embryology research papers and the collection of ideas and research for the paper. Students can wrtie about the egg, the chick or the chicken and it is an open-ended project where students are given the freedom to come up with their own question that they are interested in answering. Some students are working in a small group, a few in partners and most are working independently. 

Math

Students explored coins this week and reviewed dimes and pennies and then learned about nickels and quarters. Students practiced adding coins and identifying coins. Students did independent practice and games. I encourage you to have your child help count out change at the store or at home. We will continue to practice this into next week.

Reminders

• We are out of snack and would love some donations to help us make it through the end of the year.Please continue to send your child with a snack. This is supposed to be a back-up plans should a child forget his/her snack.
• If you haven't turned in your Look Park permission slip and $6, please do so asap. We need a permission slip from each child so that we can attend.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all of our room 4 moms a very happy Mother's Day! Thank you for all your do for your children! You make our room 4 community awesome!

Growing Chicks, Growing Minds

Hello Families! I hope your child is teaching you all about chicks and sharing some of the experiments and activities we are doing in class. We have been very busy! Students have seen just how strong egg shells are, so maybe rethink the expression, "walking on eggshells"? Students also soaked eggs in vinegar, allowing us to take a peak at the membrane of an egg. Did you know an egg can bounce without its shell?! We also had an opportunity this week to candle the eggs to see the growing embryo inside our eggs. Ask your child to tell you more about their embryology unit!

Reading & Writing

In reading we have taken a look at homonyms and your verses you're. Students have practiced the memory words: first, many, too, down, work. We have also worked on distinguishing words with ay and ai, both which make the long /a/ sound. Students learned that ai goes in the middle of a word and ay goes at the end. In writing students have started looking at non-fiction texts and labeling text features. This is all in preparation for mini-research paragraghs they will write about a research question related to embryology. Students will work in pairs or independently and get to choose their question.


Math

In math students looked at subtraction story problems with missing subtrahends and then solved story problems, both addtion and subtraction, across all settings and different missing parts or sums/differences. Next week we will learn more about coins.

Reminders/Other "stuff"

• Remember to return permission slips for the Look Park celebration
• Would love donations for Will's end of the year thank you gift and party
• Please send recycled materials by May 16th for our egg drop project.
• Wish list: snack, thin/black dry erase markers

Egg-cellent Learning

We are diving into fun in room 4. Your child has probably shared with you the exciting chick unit we have started this week. On Wednesday we put our eggs into the incubator and we will learn about the development of an embryo as it develops and hatches into a chick after 21 days. Students have learned about the parts of the incubator and how they mimic the mother hen. Students have learned about the first 3 days of development in the egg and explored the shell of an egg and it's strength. You should definitely ask your child about the egg squeeze and egg stacking experiment! A calendar was sent home with your child, so he/she can track the hatching process at home too. Here is a video students will be viewing daily throughout the unit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PedajVADLGw A lot of egg-citement in science and here's a look at some of our other learning:

Reading: 

Students have started a new unit of Superkids. Students are learning about the letter y as a vowel. Students are learning that y can make a long /e/ and long /i/ sound depending on the number of syllables in a word. four example: funny make an /e/ sound and my makes an /i/ sound. Students are also learning about the spelling patterns: ai and ay. Our new memory words are: down, too, work, many, first. We will be starting the end of the year BAS assessment in the upcoming weeks and I hope you continue to read at home with your child. It is such a helpful piece to their reading growth and I know they love reading with you!

Writing:

Students participated in a first grade "poetry slam" with the other first grade classes. Students had an opportunity to share their poetry and listen to all the great writing that is going on across the grade-level. Students have done object poems, color poems, shape poems, cinquaine poems, poems with similes and rhyming poems. This has been my favorite writing unit thus far because I feel like students really took ownership into their writing and each child's creativity and personality really shown through. They wrote some absolutely beautiful poems! I can't wait for students to share their writing portfolios with you at the end of the year!

Math:

Students have been working on story problems this weeks well as some review of previous material to ensure that they are retaining their math knowledge and skills. Students looked at simple addition and subtraction story problems and were asked to provide an equation and a label for their solution. Students were also challenged to write the question that would be asked, so for example: "Emmet had 6 green crayons and Stella had 8 purple crayons". Students then had to come up with a question your might ask, such as" "How many crayons did they have all together?" By doing this, students think about what part of the equation they are solving for. Students also looked at story problems with missing addends and subtrahends and adding together 3 addends. I did some work with grouping in small groups where students looked at dot grids and were asked home many dots they count. Students were told they could not count each individual dot and were asked to look for groups and rows or grouping and subitizing. Some students counted in groups by 2's-10's. Others used doubles facts or subitizing. I am amazed with all their diverse strategies and how they are able to share their ideas with peers!

Other Stuff:

On Wednesday we had the Amherst College Soccer Team read to us an awesome book they read. Be sure to ask your child about it.

Our high school volunteer, Will, will continue to work with us through May and will graduate in early June. I am hoping to do a gift for him and a pizza party. If you would like to donate $1-$3 to put toward the party and his gift please send in your child's folder by 5/15. I am having the students write a book with their college advice and then having a photo framed and signed with him and the students and perhaps something football related since he will be playing for Hamilton College next year. Ideas are welcome!

End of Year celebration information will be sent home in folders in the next week. Keep your eyes peeled. 

Wish List: white out, thin black dry erase markers, an electric pencil sharpener (our's has broken and was unable to be fixed).